Grinch Who Stole Christmas

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is one of the best-known children's books by Dr. Seuss. It is written in rhymed verse, with illustrations by the author. The book has been adapted to other media, also discussed below. more...

Seuss completed How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1957. The mid-1950s were a fruitful period for Seuss, during which he wrote many of the stories for which he is most admired today, including The Cat in the Hat, If I Ran the Circus, and On Beyond Zebra.

The Grinch, a bitter, green-coated, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small," lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, 10,000 foot high mountain just north of Whoville. His only companion is Max, his faithful but dim dog. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. (These are not the same microscopic-sized Whos who appear in Horton Hears a Who!; these Whos are visible to the naked eye, although the Grinch may just be their size, considering that the Whos all live on a snowflake in the film The Grinch, as opposed to living on a speck of dust in Horton Hears a Who.) Envious of the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and, by means of serial burglary, deprive them of their Christmas presents and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming". However, he learns in the end that despite his success in stealing all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. His heart grows three sizes larger, he returns all the presents and trimmings, and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos.

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